Trutanich Crime Ad: Tempest in PC Teapot

Until last Sunday, many if not most Los Angeles voters had probably only heard of one of the City Attorney candidates, the somewhat annoying Westside City Councilman Jack Weiss. But then the Los Angeles Times endorsed Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich and we suddenly realized a race was on. The Times assured its readers that "Nuch" was a man of vision and solid virtues. Weiss' backers have found more faults than virtues, however, accusing Trutanich of being either a member or sympathizer of the National Rifle Association, while also, as an attorney, having defended a man charged with shooting sea lions off Catalina Island. Perhaps the worst charge, though, was that a Trutanich television spot depicted L.A. gangbangers as menacing Latinos.

A word of advice to the Weiss campaign: Don't go there. Trutanich's

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ad was just one in a historical library of law and order ads (i.e.,

"Riordan: Tough Enough for L.A.") that depict criminals as the enemies

of society. Where these ads get sleazy and truly divisive is when they